Behind! (That's what you yell when you're carrying something hot.)

In a restaurant kitchen, "behind" means I'm right behind you, don't step back. It's also, let's be honest, a pretty good description of how most of us feel about dinner.

I went to culinary school and then spent three years cooking professionally: long shifts, burned forearms, family meal at 4pm. I learned a lot of technique that genuinely makes home cooking easier, and almost none of it requires a sous vide circulator or a tasting menu.

So that's what this is. Real chef technique, explained plainly, applied to food you actually want to eat. Sometimes that's a restaurant dish made doable. Sometimes it's mac and cheese, made properly and without apology. And sometimes it's a fix, because something went wrong and you deserve to know why.

I'm keeping this anonymous on purpose. The food is the point. (Also, my old chef might read this.)